Production of contactless chip cards of a standardized format takes place for example by the laminating process, in which an antenna coil and at least one semiconductor chip are arranged on a carrier film and integrated in a card body formed by laminating a number of films.
A further procedure envisages the arrangement of the semiconductor chip and an antenna coil on a substrate to which the card body is applied by a molding process, so that the card body completely covers the semiconductor chip and the antenna coil.
In DE 197 32 353 A1 there is specified a method for producing a contactless chip card in which a two-dimensional card body produced by an injection-molding technique and provided with a clearance is produced, an electrically conductive coil is arranged on the surface of the clearance and the chip is aligned in the clearance and connected in an electrically conducting manner to terminals of the coil. The clearances are subsequently sealed with a casting compound.
The method proposed in DE 101 56 803 A1 for producing a contactless data carrier envisages the use of a workpiece carrier as part of an injection mold onto which the coil is placed and encapsulated on both sides.
In WO 97/23843 A1, for the production of a contactless chip card, a coil is applied to a carrier film and the carrier film is introduced into an injection mold. Integrated circuit components to be electrically bonded with the coil are positioned over the carrier film and connected to the coil. A card body is subsequently molded onto the carrier film.
DE 196 37 306 C1 proposes a method for producing a contactless chip card in which a carrier film having a coil is covered with a top layer, the side of the carrier film that is opposite from the coil is covered with a card layer and the formation is introduced into an injection mold and injected with a polymer material.
The methods mentioned above have several disadvantages. The production of a chip card by means of a laminating process is very elaborate and cost-intensive. The positioning of the coil on a substrate that is to be performed according to the prior art has the consequence in the case of a molding process that the coil is always completely encapsulated. The pressure resulting from the injection of the molding compound into the mold means that there is the possibility at any time of the windings of the antenna coil becoming detached from the substrate.